THE CRASH AT CRUSH
Extreme marketing, Texas-style
How to boost ticket sales in the cutthroat world of 1890s Texas train transportation? With an epic staged train wreck, that’s how.
Texas’ first operating train line goes all the way back to 1853 between the (now) Houston suburbs and Stafford. In 1872, the MKT line had connected Texas to the rest of the country. By the 1880s, there were many competing commuter lines and the MKT had been renamed the KT and colloquially known as the Katy.
Around 1893, a man by the name of William George Crush arrived in Texas from St. Louis to work on the Katy. After three years, he was given a large promotion and tasked with boosting ticket sales on the Katy. Invigorating ticket sales at the time is no mean feat with the depth of competition. Crush decides to go big with his marketing ploy. He presents an idea to stage a huge train wreck to his superiors and is met with approval from management.
Image: William George Crush taken from his Ancestry.com entry.
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